What is medication administration

The British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition has produced a step-by-step guide for administration of drugs via enteral feeding tubes as well as information leaflets for GPs and patients. For many years the standard method of medicines administration in the healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes has been based on nurses interpreting a prescription and giving the relevant medicine in the required dose via the required route.

Self-administration as an alternative means of administering medicines is based on the patient being encouraged to play a central and active part in their drug treatment, just as they would be expected to do if at home. This assessment must initially evaluate whether or not patients administer any prescribed treatment at home, whether or not they are able to read medicine labels, can understand dose instructions and open medicine containers or packaging Box 1.

The assessment must also reflect events that take place during the hospital stay. For example a patient judged to be capable of self-administration before surgery is unlikely to be able to do so in the immediate postoperative period. A number of factors have stimulated hospital practitioners to look at the benefits of self-administration for patients and carers. There is now widespread acknowledgement that traditional methods of medicines administration in hospitals do little to encourage patient compliance and often leave patients being discharged with a bewildering bag of medicines that they may never have seen before and may not be sure how to take.

Encouraging those patients who are able to administer their own medicines, as they would do at home, raises the possibility of identifying their education needs and improving concordance. For those assessed as unable to self-administer, consideration needs to be given prior to discharge to the problems this may present. The successful operation of an extensive self-administration scheme throughout an acute hospital offers insights into the complexities and contradictions of modern medicines management which may have been hidden by the drug trolley approach.

It requires an acknowledgement that the traditional manner of working does not meet the needs of most patients, and for ward-based practitioners to be committed to adopting this approach in their practice. It also requires a truly integrated multi-professional approach that focuses on ensuring patients gain the maximum benefit from their medicines. Sign in or Register a new account to join the discussion.

You are here: Medicine management. The administration of medicines. This article has been updated The evidence in this article is no longer current. Want to know more? Nursing and Midwifery Council Medicines management. A-Z advice sheet. London: NMC. NT Contributor.

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Read on to learn the importance of using medication as directed. There are several different ways drugs can be administered. So, they may have to be given by injection instead. Not all types of medications can be administered at home or by someone without special training. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers are trained in how to give you medication safely. Healthcare providers are trained in all of these issues.

Medication errors happen all too often in the United States, even when drugs are given by professionals. The Food and Drug Administration receives more than , reports of medication errors annually through its MedWatch program. These errors can take place when:. Dosage is carefully determined by your doctor and can be affected by your age, weight, kidney and liver health, and other health conditions.

For some medications, dosage must be determined by trial and error. In these cases, your healthcare provider would need to monitor you when you first start treatment. For example, if your doctor prescribes thyroid medications or blood thinners, you would likely need to have several blood tests over time to show if the dosage is too high or too low.

Many medications need to reach a certain level in your bloodstream to be effective. They need to be given at specific times, such as every morning, to keep that amount of drug in your system. Taking a dose too soon could lead to drug levels that are too high, and missing a dose or waiting too long between doses could lower the amount of drug in your body and keep it from working properly.

Drugs that can be administered by the nasal route include nicotine for smoking cessation , calcitonin for osteoporosis , sumatriptan for migraine headaches , and corticosteroids for allergies. Drugs administered by inhalation through the mouth must be atomized into smaller droplets than those administered by the nasal route, so that the drugs can pass through the windpipe trachea and into the lungs.

How deeply into the lungs they go depends on the size of the droplets. Smaller droplets go deeper, which increases the amount of drug absorbed. Inside the lungs, they are absorbed into the bloodstream.

Some people have difficulty breathing due to illnesses which constrict their airways such as asthma. Medications for these respiratory symptoms can be given by inhalation. A metered-dose inhaler contains medication in a pressurized canister. To use the inhaler, take a deep breath as you push down on the canister, breathing in slowly for about 5 seconds.

Hold for 10 seconds, before slowly releasing the breath. A small volume nebulizer involves placing a measured amount of medicine into a chamber. A small air compressor blows a fine mist of medicine through a mouthpiece into your lungs as you breathe normally. The nebulizer treatments last about 10 minutes.

A dry powder inhaler contains medicine in the form of tiny granules. DPI inhalers use a variety of methods in which to release doses of medication. This medication is activated by breathing. Relatively few drugs are administered this way because inhalation must be carefully monitored to ensure that a person receives the right amount of drug within a specified time.

In addition, specialized equipment may be needed to give the drug by this route. Usually, this method is used to administer drugs that act specifically on the lungs, such as aerosolized antiasthmatic drugs in metered-dose containers called inhalers , and to administer gases used for general anesthesia.

Similar to the inhalation route, drugs given by nebulization must be aerosolized into small particles to reach the lungs. Nebulization requires the use of special devices, most commonly ultrasonic or jet nebulizer systems. Using the devices properly helps maximize the amount of drug delivered to the lungs.

Drugs that are nebulized include tobramycin for cystic fibrosis Cystic Fibrosis CF Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary disease that causes certain glands to produce abnormally thick secretions, resulting in tissue and organ damage, especially in the lungs and the digestive tract Pneumonia is one of the most common causes of death worldwide.

Often, pneumonia is the final Coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath that occur in response to specific triggers are Side effects can include those that occur when the drug is deposited directly in the lungs such as cough, wheezing, shortness of breath, and lung irritation , spread of the drug into the environment possibly affecting people other than the one taking the drug , and contamination of the device used for nebulization particularly when the device is reused and inadequately cleaned.

Using the device properly helps prevent side effects. Drugs applied to the skin are usually used for their local effects and thus are most commonly used to treat superficial skin disorders, such as psoriasis Psoriasis Psoriasis is a chronic, recurring disease that causes one or more raised, red patches that have silvery scales and a distinct border between the patch and normal skin.

A problem with the immune Although many bacteria come in contact with or reside on the skin, they are normally unable to establish an infection Common fungal skin infections are caused by It is one of the most common reasons people see doctors who specialize in skin disorders dermatologists. Itching makes people want to scratch.

See also Itching. Normal skin owes its soft, pliable texture to its water content. To help protect against water loss, the outer layer of skin contains oil The drug is mixed with inactive substances. Depending on the consistency of the inactive substances, the formulation may be an ointment, cream, lotion, solution, powder, or gel see Topical Preparations Topical Preparations Topical drugs drugs applied directly to the skin are a mainstay of treating skin disorders.

Systemic drugs are taken by mouth or given by injection and are distributed throughout the body Some drugs are delivered bodywide through a patch on the skin. These drugs are sometimes mixed with a chemical such as alcohol that enhances penetration through the skin into the bloodstream without any injection.

Through a patch, the drug can be delivered slowly and continuously for many hours or days or even longer.